(seafood.vasep.com.vn) In January 2017, Vietnam mainly exported its cephalopod products to 3 major markets, namely South Korea, Japan and the EU. The sales to these three markets accounted for more than 85% of the country's total export value.

South Korea was the only market in three major markets to reduce octopus imports from Vietnam in Jan with small decline of 2.3%, reaching US$14.9 million. Exports to Japan reached US$10.3 million, up 15%. Japan ranked the second behind South Korea, accounting for 25.9% of the totals.

Squid products accounted for 58.8% of the total export value with US$ 23.5 million in January 2017; the remaining was octopus.

In terms of squid products, live/fresh/frozen squid (HS03) took the largest proportion of US$16.5 million. It was followed by dried/smoked squid (HS 03) with the turnover of US$5.5 million.

In terms of octopus products, Vietnam mostly exported dried/salted/live/fresh/frozen octopus (HS03) in Jan with the export value of US$13.6 million. It was followed by processed octopus with US$2.8 million.

Among top 9 leading markets of Vietnam cephalopod, exports to the EU in Jan 2017 reported the sharpest increase of 80%. The sales to the EU hit US$8.7 million, accounting for 21.9% of the totals. Exports to 3 largest markets in the bloc (Italy, the Netherlands France) and showed the growth in which exports to Italy reached US$4.9 million, up 52%, to the Netherlands reached US$742 thousand, up 337% and exports to France reached US$714 thousand, up 196%.

The rise in cephalopod exports to the EU was thanks to lower unemployment rate and more positive regional economy.

Out of top 9 major markets of Vietnam cephalopod, Taiwan reported the sharpest drop of nearly 93% although Taiwan accounted for only 0.1% of the totals. Export turnover to Taiwan reached US$51 thousand in January 2017. However, the exports of cephalopod to China in January 2017 reached US$1.4 million, up 4.5% over the same period in 2016.